Cognitive Disabilities

Cognitive Disabilities

Many cognitive disabilities have a base in physiological or biological processes within the individual, such as a genetic disorder or a traumatic brain injury. Other cognitive disabilities may be based in the chemistry or structure of the person's brain. Persons with more profound cognitive disabilities often need assistance with aspects of daily living. Persons with minor learning disabilities might be able to function adequately despite their disability, maybe to the point where their disability is never diagnosed or noticed.

Clinical Diagnosis of Cognitive Disability

Clinical diagnosis of cognitive disability can include Down syndrome, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), Autism, or Dementia. Clinical diagnosis may also include less severe cognitive conditions such as Dyslexia, Attention Deficit Disorder, Dyscalculia, and other learning disabilities.

Functional Diagnosis of Cognitive Disability

Sometimes it is more useful to avoid the medical perspective of cognitive disability and view them from a functional perspective instead. A Functional disability perspective ignores the medical and behavioral causes of cognitive disability and focuses on the abilities and challenges the person with a cognitive disability faces. Functional cognitive disabilities may involve difficulties or deficits involving problem-solving, attention, memory, math comprehension, visual comprehension, reading, linguistic, and verbal comprehension.

Types of Cognitive Disabilities

Dyslexia

Dyslexia is the most common form of language-based learning disability. Approximately fifteen to twenty percent of the population has some form of language-based learning disability. Dyslexia is primarily a reading disability, and there is evidence suggesting that Dyslexia is a condition that is inherited. Dyslexia is a condition that is found in both females and males from all ethnic backgrounds.

Dyslexia involves difficulty in single world decoding, often reflecting an insufficient phonological processing ability. This lack of ability is something that is many times unexpected in relation to the person's age and other cognitive and academic abilities. The person has not experienced another form of developmental disability, or sensory impairment. The person may have trouble with different forms of language, reading, and difficulty with spelling and writing as well.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

ADHD is a medical condition affecting a person's ability to focus, sit still, and pay attention. They may have difficulty in focusing on tasks or subjects, or act impulsively; they may also get into trouble. ADHD begins in childhood, but may not be diagnosed until the person reaches adolescence or even adulthood.

Persons with ADHD may have difficulty with finishing assignments from school or tasks from home, jumping from one activity to another. They may lose things; forget things like homework or something they were supposed to do. They may have difficulty with following instructions, or following through with tasks they have been assigned. The person may make careless mistakes, or have difficulty paying attention to details. Persons with ADHD may have trouble organizing activities, or tasks, and may interrupt other people. They may fidget, feel restless, or talk excessively.

Brain Injury

There are a number of causes of brain injury, including Stroke, illness, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), brain tumors, and Meningitis, among others. Each brain injury is unique - there is no reliable way to predict how an individual's brain will be affected by a particular injury. Once a person's brain has been injured, health care providers perform a number of different psychological and neurological tests in order to determine the areas of the brain that have been damaged. With some brain injuries the damages done and the result in behaviors are barely noticeable. In other brain injuries the damages and affects are more extensive. The extent of the injury to the person's brain determines the outcome of the person's ability to process information.

Genetic Disability

Genetic Disabilities such as Down's syndrome, Autism, and Dementia, affect people individually. Some persons with these disabilities are able to function at higher levels than others. Persons with Down's syndrome, for example, may function at a high enough level to live independently, while others with the syndrome need consistent assistance with activities of daily living. The greater the severity of the cognitive disability the person experiences, the more difficult it is for the individual to comprehend.

Further Information Regarding Cognitive Disabilities

Prenatal Testing for Down Syndrome
With new prenatal tests for Down syndrome on the horizon promising to be safer, more accurate, and available to women earlier in pregnancy, the medical community must come together and engage in dialogue about the impact of existing and expected tests, argues a new leading article published Online.

Fighting the Burden of Mental Disorders
Mental disorders are a global problem and represent one of the biggest challenges for health care systems. In the world, there are some 500 million people suffering from mental disorders, and in the European Union, mental disorders range as one of the leading causes of disease burden.

AAIDD, Mental Retardation and Related Disabilities
The AAIDD is a website and organization that publishes two highly-ranked journals: the American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AJIDD formerly AJMR), the premier journal in the field, and Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD), an informative policy and practice journal.

Defining Fragile X Syndrome
Fragile X may be passed from a parent to a child. Parents may have children with the syndrome, even if the parents themselves do not have the syndrome. The changes in the gene associated with Fragile X might become more severe when passed from a parent to a child. Some persons can might have only a small change in the FMR1 gene, referred to as a, "Premutation," and might not present signs of Fragile X.

Severe COPD Can Lead to Cognitive Impairment
Researchers compared cognitive performance in over 4,150 adults with and without COPD and found that individuals with severe COPD had significantly lower cognitive function than those without, even after controlling for confounding factors such as comorbidities.

Measuring Intellectual Disability
Researchers from the University of California, Davis have developed a specific and quantitative means of measuring levels of the fragile X mental retardation 1 (FMR1) protein (FMRP), which is mutated in fragile X syndrome.

Down Syndrome Information and Birth Likelihood
Down syndrome is the most common chromosomal disorder. An estimated 1 in 800 infants are born with Down syndrome. Down syndrome is also a common cause of miscarriage. Every year, as many as 5,000 babies are born with Down syndrome in the United States.

Anesthesia Exposure and Learning Disabilities
Mayo Clinic researchers have found that children who require multiple surgeries under anesthesia during their first three years of life are at higher risk of developing learning disabilities later.

Canada Opens Door to Learning Disorder Drug
Canadian scientists have connected a crucial brain protein with the power to learn, raising the possibility that learning disabilities could be corrected with a drug. A Toronto research team discovered that this single protein, which helps brain cells talk to one another, results in learning impairments when it is missing or malfunctions. And in a remarkable one-two punch, the scientists have also found that a medication, now being tested in Alzheimer's patients, may fix the problem.